1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic device that is installed in a vehicle or the like and performs operation input in accordance with a user's actions, and an operation input method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, a gesture input apparatus that captures an image of the shape and movement of a hand of the user with a camera, recognizes a gesture, and performs operation input on the basis of the recognized gesture is known (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-42796). In this gesture input apparatus, a combination of gesture recognition and touch detection using a touch panel or the like enables complicated operation input. Also, in this gesture input apparatus, function selection buttons to be displayed contain animations of gestures corresponding to respective functions, so that there are advantages that, even when the user is not familiar with operations, the user grasps the gesture that corresponds to a function operation by only viewing the corresponding function selection button and an intended device is able to be operated immediately.
The gesture input apparatus disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-42796 is convenient because the user views an animation contained in a function selection button and thereby is able to learn the details of a gesture to be made by the user in order to select the function selection button. However, the gesture input apparatus has the following problems.
(1) When the user does not remember the details of a gesture required to select a function selection button, the user views an animation contained in this button. In this case, because the function selection button itself is displayed on part of a display screen and is typically small, it is hard to view the details of the animation and to grasp an operation method (the details of the gesture). In addition, it takes some time to understand the operation method.
(2) Each function selection button typically contains a character and a picture that schematically represent the details of an operation instruction (a function to be performed). However, since the function selection button contains the animation, display of the character and picture is blocked, so that it is hard to grasp the details of the operation instruction selectable via the function selection button.
The present invention has been accomplished in view of such problems, and an object thereof is to provide an electronic device, an operation input method, and an operation input program that enable the user to learn an operation method with ease and in a short time and also to learn the details of an operation instruction with ease.